Rotary engine.



H. W. N. COLE, ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED PEB. 12, 1908.

902,472, Patented Oct. 27, 1908.

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H. W. N. COLE.

ROTARY ENGINE.

APPLIOATION FILED FEB. 12. 1908.

Patented Oct. 27, 1908.

Ylllllllllllln WITNESSES:

HENRY W. N. COLE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application led February 12, 1908.

Patented Oct. 27, 1908.

Serial No. 415,563.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, HENRY W. N. COLE, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Engines, ofwhich the following is a specification, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention relates to improvements in rotary engines and particularlyto improvements in the valve mechanism of rotary engines employing acylinder or casing having a crank shaft j ournaled therein and a rotarypiston freely mounted upon the cranked portion of the shaft within thesaid cylinder, together with sliding abutments which divide the steamspace within the cylinder into several chambers.

The main objects of my invention are to simplify the valve mechanism ofengines of this character and to reduce the long ports or passagescommonly employed with the present valve system so as to economize uponthe steam su ply.

A furt ier object of my invention is to provide for the simple Governingof the same so that the steam maybbe cut off at an earlier or laterpoint in the cycle of operation in the engine in accordance with theload under which the engine is run.

To these ends I have designed a valve mechanism of substantially theCorliss type, each of the steam spaces of the cylinder being providedwith an independent inlet and exhaust valve, the said valves beingoperated from an eccentric which is designed to revolve with the mainshaft of the engine; and I have provided a centrifugal governor which isarranged inits operation to vary the distance of the said eccentric withrespect to the axis of rotation of the shaft in accordance with thespeed at which it is driven.

My invention also consists in certain details of construction and novelcombinations of parts as will hereinafter more fully appear, and inorder that my invention may be fully understood I will now proceed todescribe an embodiment thereof having reference to the accom anyingdrawings illustrating the same and w' then point out the novel featuresin claims.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is an end view of such a rotary engine,portions thereof being broken away and other parts being shown I centralvertical longitudinal section through the engine. Fig. 3 is a detailtransverse sectional view through the casing, substantially upon theline of 33. Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the path ofmovement of the eccentric for the valve mechanism, as it is moved by thegovernor.

The engine comprises generally a cylinder or casing 5 which includes endheads 6, a transverse shaft 7 suitably journaled in bearings in the saidend heads, the said shaft provided with a cranked portion 8 within thecylinder and a roller piston 9 loosely mounted upon the cranked portionof the shaft, the periphery of the piston being arranged to have arolling contact with the inner cylindrical wall of the casing 5. Thesteam space within the casing is divided into several chambers by meansof a plurality of radially disposed sliding abutments 10. Theseabutments are mounted in suitable housings 11 in the casing 5, beingarranged to slide freely backwards and forwards therein, and at theirinner ends the said abutments are provided with arms 12 which straddlethe piston and are pivoted by means of pins 18 to shoes 14 which aremounted to slide freely in annular grooves 15 in the sides of the saidpiston. By this means, the piston in its planetary rotational movementswithin the casing, imparts the required radial movements to the saidabutments.

Each of the chambers within the cylinder which are thus divided fromeach other by the said radial abutments is provided with an inlet portor passage 16 and with an outlet port or passage 17 and each of the saidports or passages is controlled by an individual valve. In the exampleof my invention illustrated, there are three chambers and hence thereare three separate inlet valves provided and three corresponding exhaustvalves, the said valves being arranged to control the said inlet andexhaust passages respectively. These valves are of the Corliss type,each said inlet valve 18 being disposed in a suitable chamber in thecasing 5 and mounted upon a rock shaft 19, the said exhaust valves 20being similarly disposed in suitable chambers in the casing and mountedupon rock shafts 21.

Steam is supplied to each of the inlet valves 19 from a common supply22, suitable passages leading from the supply 22 to the said valveseither in the form of a direct passage 23 where the valve is close tothe supply,

in section. Fig. 2 is a view substantially in 1 or through crossoverpassages 24 and a chamber 25 inclosed within one of the headsn, the saidchamber being closed by means of a cap 26, where the valves are at somedistance from the said supply 22. Similarly there is a common exhaust ordischarge pipe 27 to which similar passages connect from the severalexhaust valves either in the form of a direct passage 28, or crossoverpassages and through a chamber 29 in the other said head 6.

Mounted fast upon the shaft 7 at the exterior of the casing is a disk30, the said disk provided with a pin 31 near the outerl edge thereof,upon which is pivotedly mounted an arm or member 32, the said arm ormember carrying at its inner' or free end a pin 33 which constitutes theeccentric for driving the inlet valves. The pin 33 is maintained in itsproper relative position by means of two opposing forces, one of saidforces being the centrifugal action generated by the revolution of aweighted portion 34 of the arm or member 32, and the other theretractile force of a leaf spring 35 which is secured at one end fast tothe said disk 30, and is connected at the other end by means of a link36 with the said arm or member 32. The path of movement of the eccentricpin 33 with respect to the axis of rotation of the shaft 7 isillustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 4, said path of movement beingdesignated by the broken line 37. By examination of this figure, it willbe readily understood that as the speed of the engine increases, theeccentricity of the pin 33 with respect to the shaft 7 will be decreasedowing, of course, to the increase of centrifugal force of the weight 34.

Mounted upon the pin 33 is a hub 38 to which is connected a plurality oflinks 39, one for each inlet valve employed, the said links beingpivotedly connected at their opposite or outer ends with arms 40 uponthe rock shafts 19. By reason of this construction, as the shaft 7revolves, rockin@ movements will be imparted to the several inlet valves18 progressively to admit and cut off steam, and further, under theinfluence of the governor, movements thus imparted will be decreased orincreased as the tendency of the engine is to run too fast or too slow.vEach of the said links 39 is provided with an adjusting collar 41 forthe purpose of initially setting or adjusting the said valves 18.

. The exhaust valves 2() are driven 1n a manner similar to the manner inwhich the inlet valves are driven, except that no adjustment is providedfor the eccentric therefor. This eccentric 42 is shown as secured to therear of the disk 30 (see Fig. 2), the said eccentric being provided withan eccentric strap 43 which is connected by means of links 44 andadjusting collars 45, with arms 46 upon the exhaust valve shafts 21.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that I have provided arotary engine of the type specified with a valve mechanism of theCorliss type and that as a result of the particular construction, I havereduced the inner ports or passages to such a point as to necessarilyeffect a great saving of motive fluid; further that I have provided asimple and efficient governing device by which the engine may beeconomically run under varying degrees of load and that the entireconstruction is a simple one, is inexpensive to make, is composed of butfew parts and the working parts therein are all of ready access so thatrepairs thereof and adjustments thereto may be readily made. It willalso be noticed that the valve mechanism is substantially balanced as toall its moving parts and that the resistance to the movement of thevalves is so nearly balanced that the governor is left free to actproperly under the influence of centrifugal force opposed only by thespring. In other words, there is no tendency to destroy the accuracy ofthe governor due to variable resistance of the moving arts.

V hat I claim is:

1. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, an inlet ort for each such subdivision, anindividua valve for each said inlet port, and common means for operatingall the said valves.

2. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, an exhaust port for each such sub-division, anindividual valve for each said exhaust port, and common means foroperating all the said valves.

3. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, individual inlet and exhaust ports for each suchsub-division, individual valves for each said inlet and exhaust port,common means for operating all of the said inlet valves, and commonmeans for operating all of the said exhaust valves.

4. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, an inlet ort for each such sub-division, anindividuall valve of the oscillatory type for each said -inlet port, andcommon means for imparting oscillatory movements to all of the saidvalves.

5. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion Within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, an exhaust port for each such sub-division, anindividual valve of the oscillatory type for each said exhaust port, andcommon means for imparting oscillatory movements to all of the saidvalves.

6. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, inlet and exhaust ports for each suchsub-division, an individual valve of the oscillatory type for each saidinlet and exhaust ports, and common means for imparting oscillatorymovements to all of the said valves.

7. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, a plurality of valves of the oscillatory type onefor each of the said sub-divisions, arms carried by the said valves at apoint exterior of the casing, an eccentric mounted to rotate with thesaid shaft, a hub mounted upon the said eccentric, and links connectingthe said hub With the said valve arms.

8. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, a plurality of valves of the oscillatory type onefor each of the said sub-divisions, an eccentric carried by the saidshaft at a point exterior of the said casing, a centrifugal governingdevice for controlling the position of said eccentric, and meansoperated by the said eccentric for imparting oscillatory movements tothe said valves.

9. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided witha crankportion arranged within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, a plurality of valves of the oscillatory type onefor each of the said subdivisions, a crank pin carried by the said shaftat a point exterior ofthe said casing, an arm carried by the said crankpin, an eccentric mounted upon the said arm at a point thereon betweenthe axial center of the said crank pin and the axial center of the saidshaft, the said arm provided with a Weighted portion to constitute acentrifugal means, a spring for opposing movements of the said arm underthe influence of the said weight, a hub mounted upon the said eccentric,and means connecting the said hub with the said valves to impartoscillatory movements thereto.

10. A rotary engine comprising a casing, a shaft provided with a crankportion arranged Within the casing, a rotary piston loosely mounted uponthe said crank portion Within the casing, a plurality of slidingabutments dividing the space between the piston and the casing into aplurality of chambers, a plurality of valves of the oscillatory type onefor each of the said subdivisions, a disk carried by the said shaft atthe exterior of the said casing, a crank pin 31 carried thereby, an arm32 pivotally mounted upon the said crank pin and provided with aWeighted portion 34, a spring 35 for opposing movements of the said armdue to the centrifugal action of the Weighted portion thereof, aneccentric 33 carried by the said arm, a hub mounted upon the saideccentric, connecting links secured to the said hub, and arms carried bythe valves to which the said links are also connected.

1l. In a rotary engine the combination with a substantially cylindricalcasing including an end head provided with a central projecting bearinghub, and having an annular recessed portion surrounding the said as setforth.

HENRY W. N. OGLE. Witnesses:

GEO. CAREY, EDNA FYFE.

